I Loved Avril Lavigne and Nicki Minaj’s “Dumb Blonde,” and I Am Not Ashamed
Yesterday, the music world was given the collaboration it didn’t know it needed: Former pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne (yes, she’s back, y’all!) partnered with the queen of spits Nicki Minaj on “Dumb Blonde,” a featherbrained, upbeat single that sends you straight back to the early 2000s. The lyrics go a little something like this: “I ain’t no dumb blonde, I ain’t no stupid Barbie doll, I got my game on, watch me, watch me, watch me prove you wrong.” After a full listen of the fun single, I allowed the auto-amalgamated playlist on my Spotify to play on, and what followed was a flood of like-minded sugary pop hits: The Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” and Fergie’s “Fergalicious,” for starters. Musical masterpieces, really.
Avril and Nicki’s link-up got people talking because it’s an unlikely duo, sure—“I used drive to my job at Red Lobster playing this woman’s album for an hour straight everyday for months,” Minaj tweeted of Lavigne (who knew!)—but much of what makes their up-tempo track so buzzy and appealing is that it’s so pleasantly brainless. It’s cheesy pop at its finest! And in this era of overwrought musical messaging and suicidal-sounding SoundCloud rap, I’m inclined to think that “cheesy” is exactly what pop music needs. Hear me out: In these terrifying sociopolitical times—when our own president is so gob-smackingly idiotic that he thinks global warming doesn’t exist, for instance—a happy-go-lucky tune is that perfect distraction for one’s morning commute. The earth may be imploding, but rather than become paralyzed by worry, why not let that perfectly packaged verse-chorus-bridge add just the slightest pep to your step to get you out the door?
I argue that “Dumb Blonde” is resonating with so many of us because, quite simply, it brings us joy. “This is the 2000s song I need in 2019,” wrote one Twitter user, and they're not wrong: In the ’90s and early-’00s, pop hits were churned out assembly line–style and without much meat or thought. Songs adhered to that old Seinfeld ethos: fun but about nothing. Yet the decade has given birth to some of the most earwormy, memorable singles as a result: My personal favorite, “Toxic” by Britney Spears, still pop ups everywhere from elevators to supermarkets and continues to be covered, even by classical orchestras. These were feel-good tunes, and they are missed. I found myself discussing this with my friend Hillary, who shares this exact sentiment. “My whole running playlist is full of early-millennium pop,” she says, showing me some winners like the Black Eyes Peas’s “Boom Boom Pow” and P!nk’s “Get the Party Started,” both in her queue: “It’s music when no one was trying to teach me a lesson. When I’m running, I like to think of nice things!”
It’s true that today’s pop stars have a harder road ahead than their early ’00s counterparts. They can’t ignore the time they live in, and their work is now frequently meatier and more culturally minded. The once all-engrossing power of record labels and radio play has subsided in favor of social media and Internet streaming, and musicians are more unwavering when it comes to their personal visions. Someone like Billie Eilish, for instance, has dominated the pop scene with music that is barely pop: The mostly whispered “Bury a Friend,” her recent single, sounds more like an eerie lullaby. Even the bigger pop stars make sure their songs are socially relevant: Lady Gaga champions LGBTQ rights and mental health awareness with her dance hits. Katy Perry attempted to coin “purposeful pop” to describe her pivot to focusing on the more pressing issues facing young people today. Logic had an enormous hit that highlighted a suicide hotline’s phone number.
Yes, using music to draw attention to what’s important is a necessary and effective tool for spreading larger ideas and igniting change. But does pop—and more broadly, all music genres—always have to have such a hard-hitting center? Can’t it sometimes just be fluff created for our enjoyment? “Dumb Blonde” may not be putting forth a master plan for combating climate change or curing what ails us as a society, but these days, putting the fun back into pop music feels plenty innovative to me.
